The invention relates to an attachment mechanism and system used to accessorize, customize and/or personalize articles of clothing. More particularly, this invention presents a safe and easy system for the attachment and detachment of ornaments or decorative emblems to clothing. This invention allows both the manufacturer and/or wearer to promote and display theme material of their own choosing, with the freedom to change the material or message without having to change garments.
For as long as there has been men and women, there has been the desire to place ornaments, emblems or other types of decoration on the garments they wear. In fact, the earliest and most common archaeological items of evolved civilizations are found to be ornamentations and adornments.
Modern man has not changed in this matter. World cultures still desire and promote the addition of colored emblems or other such distinctions to their garments, to make them more personal to the wearer, and/or to make a vanity statement for both manufacturer and wearer. Although the desire to make such personal expressions has not diminished, the methods of clothing personalization have evolved from embroidery to common fabric printing and stitching. These common methods appertain an article of clothing to a specific theme, event or vanity statement as they are permanently applied to the clothing.
Certain other methods for limited ornamentation on articles of clothing have also been developed and designed. One such recent method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,198, entitled "Ornamental Attachment for Footwear and the Like" issued July 1, 1986, to Schweitzer. This apparatus utilizes the lacing of a shoe to attach an ornament. Because of it's structure, this method of attachment requires manual dexterity and the use of both hands; and since it relies on lacing to attach ornaments, it's application is also very limited.
Another attachment mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,413, entitled "Combination Loop and Fastening Device", issued May 28, 1957, to Oder. This device utilizes wire lengths fabricated with a pair of sharp ended spikes; these spike ends then assist in the attachment of a wire loop to certain articles of clothing. It is apparent that this device, and others like it, pose a significant "safe use" problem for either small children or the infirmed who do not have the steady hands necessary to properly pin and spread the anchor spikes. Further safety considerations exist in the fact that the wearer then carries the spike anchor portion, which is bent on the underside of the material, against their person.
Another class of mechanism used to fasten items to clothing has focused on the shoulder area of shirts and blouses, and more particularly to the attachment of shoulder straps and/or military epaulets to the shoulder. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,476,712, entitled "Blouse Shoulder Strap", issued July 19, 1949, to Eisenberg. This device deals with the formation of a holding and positioning means located over the shoulder, especially in women's apparel. The holding epaulet is formed of several folds of cloth with one element stitched to the shoulder area. Snaps close the top element to the main element to form an epaulet for holding tape-like components over the shoulder. Beyond it's limited application, this device does not create an environment for novel or fun type ornamentation as the epaulet is styled in the military look. Further, this device also requires substantial dexterity to operate.
Other types of epaulet arrangements are described by U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,245, entitled "Shirt", issued Sept. 12, 1961, to Lippman; and U.S. Pat. No. 111,456 entitled "Epaulet" issued Jan. 31, 1871, to Horshmann. Again, both of these patents incorporate military styled epaulets at or on the shoulder area and they rely on hard metal components to operate.
It is clear from the foregoing analysis and background that the prior examples referred to are only limited or even single use attachment mechanisms for clothing ornamentation. It is the object of the present invention to provide not only a simplified and safe attachment mechanism, but to provide a complete and extended use system for clothing and garment ornamentation and accessorizing. The invention offers real flexibility with virtually unlimited application.
Further objectives of this invention are: to provide a complete system for ornamentation and/or accessorizing which can be utilized on virtually any article of clothing or garment; to provide a system which can, in part or whole, be applied and utilized by both the clothing/garment manufacturer and the wearer; to provide a complete system that could be made available through the clothing manufacturer, at the point of sale, and/or through the after sale garment/accessory market; to provide a system where the receiving component, when displayed as the manufacturer's label, could stand as a single element vanity statement; to provide a system where customized or thematic statements on articles of clothing can be changed by simply changing accessories; to add flexibility and to allow for changes of personal choice within the customized or thematic clothing industry; to provide a system which can be used and enjoyed by all age/social groups, including children and the enervated, as even limited systems are not currently available to these segments; to provide a system which can be readily and economically fabricated, and yet one which exhibits reasonably long life.